A new law in Nevada could benefit people all over the country who want to reduce estate taxes and protect assets from creditors. The law allows anyone in the U.S. to create a “restricted” limited partnership or limited liability company in Nevada. In general, putting assets into an LP or LLC can be a good idea. You can then give membership units, or shares, in the LP or LLC to your heirs each year. Ordinarily, you

Years ago, when someone passed away, their loved ones could often access all the documents they needed with a simple key to a safe deposit box. Now however, many aspects of people’s lives – both financial and personal – are online in places accessible only by password. This includes e-mail accounts, PayPal accounts, online banks and brokerages, automatic bill-paying arrangements, and even Facebook pages and photo collections.

Many parents make gifts or loans to their children. Often they give more money to one child than to others, perhaps because one child has a greater need. If you do make a significant gift or loan to one of your heirs, you should modify your will to address it. The reason: If something happens to you, it might be unclear to your heirs what the effect of the gifts or loans should be on their

Almost three million children in the U.S. between the ages of five and 15 have special needs, according to the latest Census figures. Parents of these children need to use extra care in planning their estates. For most people, estate planning is about making sure your assets go where you want them to, and minimizing inconvenience and taxes along the way. But parents of special needs children face an additional challenge because they have to make

Many people wonder about passing along their assets to a child who tends to overspend and hasn’t show an ability to manage money.  They worry that such a child will blow through an inheritance quickly and wont have the money to live on as he or she gets older. Fortunately, there are ways to provide for such children while at the same time protecting them from themselves. For instance, you can put assets into a trust

When a person dies, the value of his or her estate for tax purposes is its value at the date of death.  However, the tax isn’t due until nine months after death.  If the value of an estate plummets in the nine months after a person’s death, this can create very bad consequences for the heirs – namely, a large amount of tax is due but the assets that will be used to pay the tax

Many people should consider converting a regular IRA or old 401(k) plan into a Roth IRA, as a result of a change that takes effect on January 1 of next year.  With a regular IRA, contributions are often tax-deductable, but you have to take a certain amount of money out of the account each year once you turn age 701/2, and you have to pay income tax on the withdrawals.  If you leave the IRA to

Ordinarily, people over 70½ are required to receive a minimum distribution from their retirement plan each year. But this minimum payout won’t be required in 2009, thanks to a law passed by Congress. However, this law is creating widespread confusion, and if you’re concerned, you might want to ask for advice quickly on how to handle your particular situation.

Nobody likes a recession, but any time when real estate values, stock prices and interest rates are low is a great time to do estate planning.  You can transfer assets to your heirs now at a low value and save them a huge estate tax bite later. One way to do this is with a “grantor retained annuity trust” or GRAT.  The idea is that you create a trust and fund it with income producing assets,

With interest rates at historic lows, this can be a good time to make loans to your children so they can buy a home, start a business, or invest.  Giving your children an outright gift can subject you to the gift tax, but giving your children a loan doesn’t have any effect on estate or gift taxes as long as your children pay you back at an interest rate set by the IRS.  Right now, the